Friday, August 23, 2013

Philly Cheeze Fakes

Have you ever had time go by and then soon realize that it is almost the end of the month when it seems like just yesterday it was the beginning on the month? That has been my August. I swear that yesterday was August 1st! It has been such a busy month that I forgot to post for almost the whole month. I guess between numerous out of town trips, an unexpected hospitalization of a family member, Internet outages, and Mark running his first triathlon (good job babe!) time has just gotten away from me. I even have recipes waiting in the wings ready to be posted! I guess this month I am just thankful that Ashlyn is far from starting school yet and I didn't have to add first day of school to that list.

OK, so on to what I am sure you have been waiting for. Now, as cute as the name Philly Cheeze Fakes is I can't take credit for the name. I ran across this recipe on Taste of Home and I just had to try it based on the name alone. Here is the original recipe Philly-Cheese-Fakes which I tweaked to fit our tastes. The original recipe calls for shiitake mushrooms which I am not a huge fan of, but more importantly are fairly expensive. So, I changed the shiitakes to cremini or button (depending on what you have available) and also changed the spices up a bit. I actually didn't even try the original recipe as written and just used it as inspiration to make my own version of the sandwich. Let me tell you though that my version is definitely worth making. We all love this recipe including Ashlyn! This is a for sure winner if you like the taste of a cheese steak sandwich, but would like to make it a little healthier. Hey, you can also make it for the reason I did, the name! How can you resist making something with such a cute name!

1. Saute the mushrooms in a little olive oil on medium heat until brown about 10 minutes.

2. While the mushrooms are cooking in a measuring cup or bowl whisk together the rest of the sandwich ingredients (except the buns).

3. Once the mushrooms are brown add the contents of the measuring cup and cook until the liquid is absorbed.

4. While the mushrooms are being glazed toast your hot dog buns.

5. Once the liquid is cooked out of the mushrooms and they are coated in the glaze place the mushrooms into your hot dog buns and top with Cheeze Sauce or cheese of your choice if you eat cheese.

6. If choosing to do so top the Cheeze Sauce with caramelized onions and sauteed peppers.

*Notes: We choose to use hot dog buns instead of hoagie buns to decrease the portion size, but feel free to use whole wheat hoagie buns.

The night I took the pictures I was out of peppers, so these pictures just contain caramelized onions. I also served the sandwiches with roasted potato wedges and steamed green beans.

If you choose to use the optional toppings you can still make this an easy one pan meal (minus making the Cheeze Sauce) by caramelizing your onions, removing them from the pan, sauteing the peppers in the same pan, removing them, and then doing your mushrooms.

This is one of my family's favorite recipes so I hope your family enjoys it just as much as we do.